The Chemical of Evil...

[acroyear]

...continues to haunt me.

"High Fructose Corn Syrup".

Evil.

and Everywhere.

Its in all but 2 of the "nutritious snacks" that my company gives its employees for free.  And one of those two is "Cheetos".  Its in Animal Crackers.  Its in Nutter Butters.

The real pisser: its in the supposedly best for your health "Nutri-Grain" Cereal Bars from Kellogg's.  Three times.

"Ingredients: Filling (high fructose corn syrup, apple preserves [high fructose corn syrup, apples], ...)..., high fructose corn syrup, ..."

So its the #1 ingredient of the "filling", and the #1 ingredient of the #2 ingredient of said filling, AND it shows up in the main ingredients list on its own.

I just can't stand it.  I didn't used to care, but now that I do, I am still at that state where I am shocked at all of the food items that incorporated this processed calorie factory.

Someday, I won't be shocked to see it.  When that happens, I might as well just quit. 

I'm pretty sure its a key ingredient in Budweiser, only the mega-breweries refuse to submit to a "list your ingredients" regulation from the FDA, something the micros have been pushing for over a decade, for that very reason. ;)

Items that have that poison, and more of it than you might think...

• breakfast syrups are now more corn syrup / high fructose corn syrup than maple, and the major brands all have no maple at all.  pure maple syrup should have this as its one and only ingredient: "sap".
  
• whole wheat breads
• Caesar salad dressing and Yoplait Yogurt.
• every (non-organic) prepackaged sweetened tea (often its in the ingredient list above tea itself) including lipton and nestea
• peanut butter (not all, but the cheap stuff they stick in crackers from keebler or lances certainly does).  most american-made jellys, jams, and preserves.
  
• most condiments (ketchup, bbq, yellow mustard)
• white bread products like low-end hamburger and hotdog buns (particularly those used at McDonalds)
  

simply inescapable...but i'm gonna keep trying as best i can.  I won't worry about it in the things I eat in relatively small doses (condiments and salad dressings, and my favorite apple jelly), but otherwise if i see a snack that lists it as an ingredient (and certainly something that claims to be nutritious and yet lists it 3 times, including the first two items on the list), then its something I will, quite literally, live without.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

Add most commercial ice cream to this list.

(I've obviously become an appalling Californian, because I looked at that list and thought: "right, so don't BUY those processed foods.")

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

Actually, he's stopped getting most of them. Condiments are the biggest exception. He has gone out of his way now to make sure the store next door carries non-sweetened iced tea (do you have any idea how difficult it is to get non-sweet-tea around here?), he's been only going to restaurants that have unsweetened tea, he's been trying to avoid anything with HFCS...

But as you can see, it isn't easy.

[eac.livejournal.com]

Are you and Joe still in Sterling? I suppose I'd never given it any thought. Years ago, in Fairfax, there always seemed to be unsweetened tea and there always is in San Francisco.

And yea, I agree that condiments are difficult.

(A close friend of mine is dangerously allergic to corn and corn syrup. That's led me to try not to buy the stuff - both because I know it's evil, and because I want to be able to feed her without difficulty.)

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

yeah, we're still in the general "hood" of northern va (sterling). :)

it runs about 50/50 nowadays. the burger kings all have nestea's "raspberry" flavored stuff on fountain (loaded with HFCS). mcdonalds have real tea, but of course everything else is HFCS loaded, including (allegedly) their french fries.

safeway has every style of Lipton bottled tea *except* unsweetened. i haven't tried giant or wegmans yet (i've been busy; grocery shopping's hardly been high on the priority list).

the real hassle is that aside from a rather nice only-slightly-sweetened organic tea (34 cal / bottle, sugar only), there's nothing in the convenience store in my building. rather tedious, really. especially annoying is that they sell out of the stuff. no matter what, to get unsweetened tea i have to leave the building.

it seems like such a simple thing, unsweetened tea...